UTEP Establishes Collaboration With DoD, NSA To Help Enhance U.S. Semiconductor Workforce

NSA, the signals intelligence and cybersecurity agency for the United States, also recently named UTEP as an NSA Center of Academic Excellence in Cybersecurity Research, making UTEP one of only 11 universities nationwide to hold all three NSA Center of Excellence designations in Cybersecurity Defense, Cybersecurity Operations and Cybersecurity Research.

Under the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (OUSD(R&E)) Trusted and Assured Microelectronics (T&AM) program’s Scalable Asymmetric Lifecycle Engagement (SCALE) initiative, UTEP students and faculty are undertaking DoD-relevant microelectronics research in the fields of physics, engineering, materials science and cybersecurity.

The University’s SCALE participation seeks to enhance the education and experience of students and equip them upon graduation to meet the needs of the defense industry’s microelectronics workforce.

UTEP semiconductor research will begin with a focus on making 3D printed microchips capable of higher performance at a reduced cost.

Salamah Salamah, Ph.D., professor and chair of the UTEP Computer Science Department explained that the new NSA cybersecurity research designation recognizes the quality of the University’s doctoral program in computer science, which has existed since 2005. The cyber defense and cyber operations designations recognize the rigor of undergraduate programs in computer science, which prepare students with the skills needed to protect networks against cyberattacks and to gain a decisive advantage for the nation through cyber operations in support of national security.